Zardon

Read The Guide Here
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Today, DriverHeaven will show you just how easy building a computer really is... a few simple steps and some time is all it takes and you will gain the satisfaction of building your own PC and learning a lifelong skill in the process.

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kris23

its really great to finally see this guide up.... i truly hope that this guide will help those who wish to build a system of their own, succeed and be filled with the satisfaction of using their own machine.

thank you Allan for making this thing come out so great and to Nathan for taking the time to take some excellent pictures

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clanman

wow great job guys, my kid brother is about to go to newegg and order a bunch of stuff to build his first pc. He has been too proud to ask me to help him so this will prove useful.

swimtech

Awesome.

One of the best pictoral guides I can remember seeing, with all the major details covered. Hopefully, this guide will do a lot to help many folks easily overcome any "intimidation factor" in order to build a system that can be a much better value than a pre-built system. Not only that, the whole process of choosing components, purchasing, and assembling can be a lot of fun, extremely satisfying, and a great learning experience!

What a difference those zip ties make!

Thanks for this y'all!

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

brutusmaximus

great job ! well impressed and most of these guides ive seen on sites suck or miss out certain parts of the build.

I think you covered it all for the newbie builder. So I hope people who read it post their experiences and if it helped them make their first creation.

Equally so I know this great community will help support those who try their best and maybe run into issues, thats what makes DH so great.

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humonous

top job, that is a well rounded and very helpful piece of work. I am positive a lot of people will get something from it.

Mac Daddy

Great job on this Kris and cool on Nathans help as well .. outstanding !!

+ rep

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"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

kris23

thanks alot guys

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Tyrsonswood

I agree, great job guys..... very clear and easy to read. Photos are excellent too!

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Band sites....http://www.myspace.com/chromecrow ... http://www.myspace.com/zoneblues

Chaos

nice and easy to follow and reads well, good job

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lepel

I'm reading through it now. It's really great and must be very useful to people who are unsure about building a PC. Truly a beautiful effort made by DH!

If I may make a suggestion about the page with "how to choose components": I would explain the different sizes in motherboards and cases: ATX, µATX etc. Because some someone might buy a mini size case, not knowing that his ATX motherboard doesn't fit inside.

EDIT: Finished it. It was really easy to read and very clear to understand with all the pictures. But I have a question about applying the thermal compound. When I built my first system last year I was wooried the most about this bit so I did a ton of research on the internet. Aren't you applying too much of it? Especially in the picture where the paste was spread out. Most guides advise a drop the size of a grain of rice. Also the layer should be so thin that it's almost translucent. If the thermal compound is conductive, applying too much might be dangerous I thought.

Lastly, can someone explain me the next passage.

kris23

all great points to address, the only statement currently addressing this is the "does it support your motherboard" ill see about expanding on that.

the amount of thermal paste is alright or too much depending on how it is prepared. that excess is good as if you flatten the layer, having too much is better than too little since over half of it will usually adhere to whatever you are using to smooth it out.

the grain of rice example is almost exclusively for the simpler method of applying it to the center and just placing the heatsink on top of it and let it spread naturally.

the optimal amount of thermal paste is debatable and really depends on the paste's consistency as it is also very easy to add too little thermal paste. as no surface is completely flat, there may not be enough to make effective heat transfer possible. if its only slightly over the needed amount, if it isn't a lot, the pressure and heat will eventually force the paste out of the sides making it a non issue.

as for the SATA drives, the ports generally register as 0,1,2,3,4,5. with an optical drive in 0, the motherboard recognizes port 1 as the OS disk, even if the HDD doesnt have an OS disk on it, the drive after the optical is seen as the primary HDD and will attempt to boot from it weither or not an OS is actually installed.

hope that helps!

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lepel

Thanks for clearing that up kris. If I remember I installed my OS HDD on SATA port 0, the secondary drive on 1 and my optical drive on 3. I think, I can't remember very well, but it works. ^^

kris23

yea, it should work fine in different orders depending on the board make....

my maximus formula can run the primary HDD to be 0 if i wanted, while some gigabyte boards require the above arrangement in order to even boot the OS properly. it all depends. dunno why but thats just how it is with some manufacturers

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Alex

I have been building pc's for decades and I gotta say that a lot of the guides on the net are WELL off on their little tips on how to apply paste. applying too little paste is actually more damaging that applying a little too much.

The pictures in this guide are about the same amount I would apply and its also worth mentioning that if you are using an aftermarket cooler with direct heatpipe technology that a little more should be applied to compensate for the additional grooves.

I appreciate the comment on the conductive pastes but unless you slap it down like you were laying bricks there is no way it will get onto the motherboard.

My advice would be to apply a nice even layer, not too much and not too little, much like the picture shows.

dawgXdenta

nice one Zardon taking care of your peeps on DH

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Hexotic

Excellent guide.

I just wish this was around when I built my first machine. Looks and reads a hell of alot better than the instructions that came with the parts I bought.

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Good Enough, Is never Good Enough!

anonemus

Excellent!

How I wish there's a "print" button on the articles. I usually print to PDF interesting reviews I find online, and read them offline at home...

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write a book. plant a tree. raise a child. build a rig

Vikingod

Great work Kris.

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procupine14

Very good piece of guide you guys! I kinda wish that there was this good of a guide out there when I built my first one but hey that's ok I didn't damage anything and that PC was still going three years later when it was dismantled. My board as far as the SATA discussion goes allows you to just identify which drive is which so I've never had the problem with having to put them in a specific order.

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Laptop: HP dv6000 - Vista Ultimate (32-bit) - AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60(2.0GHz) - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200 256MB - 4GB Kingston DDR2 667 - 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

HTPC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 5200+ x2 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - Samsung EcoGreen 1TB - Hauppauge single tuner HD - ASUS Radeon HD4550 512MB - ECS RS485M-M mobo - Creative X-fi soundcard - Seasonic 300W SFX PSU

Other PC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 4200+ X2 - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - HIS 4850 512MB - DFI Infinity NF570 SLI-M2/G - CoolerMaster 400W PSU

NathanMarks

The reason I find you have to have your SATA HDDs in a specific order is because if you've got one with an OS installation on and it isn't set as the first priority HDD you may have to change the ordering in the BIOS, something i've experienced myself. Novice users may not feel so comfortable in there.

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nathanmarks.dh

procupine14

That's true....makes sense to me. Sorry its been awhile since I was a novice....I forget how intimidating a BIOS screen used to be

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Laptop: HP dv6000 - Vista Ultimate (32-bit) - AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60(2.0GHz) - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200 256MB - 4GB Kingston DDR2 667 - 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

HTPC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 5200+ x2 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - Samsung EcoGreen 1TB - Hauppauge single tuner HD - ASUS Radeon HD4550 512MB - ECS RS485M-M mobo - Creative X-fi soundcard - Seasonic 300W SFX PSU

Other PC: Vista Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Athlon 4200+ X2 - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 - 250GB Seagate Barracuda - HIS 4850 512MB - DFI Infinity NF570 SLI-M2/G - CoolerMaster 400W PSU

Stop It

Very nice guide there Kris, certainly a good, well thought out and methodical guide.

I have literally just rebuilt my PC myself, after buying a new iCute 0508ULA case. It might have a dull name but its not a dull case, it also marks the first time I actually paid attention to wire management, something that usually goes out of the window.

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cozumel

Great guide kris and nathan.

Just one thing I have found depending on the case that some people new to building may need to be aware of.

When preparing the motherboard it may not always be possible to fit the cooler prior to installing into the case if the cpu cooler is large. I've had it before (more than once) when I was not able to slide the motherboard into place due to the sheer size of the cooler and it had to be removed. Once the motherboard was in place wihin the case then I was able to reinstall the cooler again!! I suppose it's just a case of looking at the case & components first, to see what fits where and how, so that you can save time and not to do it the dumb way like me lol!

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NathanMarks

Hey Cozumel,

You raise a good point however I see that issue isolated to a very few instances.

Firstly, in every build I have ever done I have never had a problem installing the motherboard straight into the case with a large cooler attached, in fact, most large coolers require backplates so installation to the motherboard is often preferred before case installation. In fact I have had more trouble attempting to install coolers INSIDE the case, especially those with a top mounted PSU.

However, I can see how some removable motherboard trays may have issues with large coolers. Cases such as the NZXT Khaos won't accomodate a large cooler while using the fold out tray mechanism so you must install the motherboard straight into the case. Same goes for some slide-in trays, sometimes the frame of the chassis can block entry for large coolers. Once again traditional installation must be performed in that case.


I haven't seen a case myself that can fit the motherboard entry but not the cooler as on the horizontal plane the motherboard takes up a much larger area.

Can I ask what case you are using and the cooler you are having problems with?

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nathanmarks.dh

cozumel

It's not with my current case. Anbd yes, it was due to a sliding motherboard tray. The last problem was with a Thermalright SI-120 on 478 board that wouldn't slide into a Lian Li PC60-Plus chassis.

No problems at all with my Cosmos and my current build!!!

Edit: So, the conclusion I guess, is to be aware of the potential increased installation difficulty if you intend to buy a case with a sliding motherboard tray and a large CPU cooler

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kris23

yea youre right coz, but since those are very isolated cases, depending on the case and cooler as well as its retention mechanism.

if the motherboard tray doesnt have enough clearance to slide in a board with a large cooler, id lock in the motherboard tray and install the motherboard and cooler directly. if that doesnt work then a person has serious problems

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Odinarius

Great guide guys, I`ll bookmark it if some of my friends need it in the future. So I don`t have to come over and do it for them (though I rather enjoy assembling new computers). Love how the pictures turned out great.

If it`s not done already, an idea for the future would be to write the guide about SILENCING the computer. I`ve just spent a lot of money and effort on killing any sounds in my case, and I imagine noise is a problem for many people, yet it`s quite simple!

If it`s done as well as this (I have no doubt it will), lot of people would appreciate it!

Boundzy

Excellent guide . . . not that I expected anything less.

When building my first system, I was more intimidated by the software than the hardware. Specifically, I was overwhelmed by all of the various drivers and unsure of in what order should I install them. Fortunately, I had the nice folks at DH to help me!

tonypizzle

question. i love the guide and this will be my first pc that i will attempt to build. but in the guide it says to plug in ur power supply after installing. do i leave it plugged in the whole time or just plug it in and then unplug?